Escape from City 14
by loyd2323
Summary: The story of City 17 is often told but what happen to the others?  Follow George McHenry from one late morning to... where ever this ends up :D  Enjoy
1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1: Late for Work

_Stupid light, why don't you just shut off? Oh, wait a minute, that's not a light! It's the sun... the situation is worse than I thought. That means it's the morning, which also means it's past 8am, so I;m late for my daily slave labour. Oh well..._

_ MY GOD! I'm late for work! _I roll out of bead as I think of this, hitting my head on the radio. I then scramble up running to my closet ignoring my new headache. _Great, just what I need before my beating! A flipping headache!_ I take a blue citizen jumpsuit and dress into it as quickly as possible. I then quickly grab my glasses and my old watch from the table next to my closet while rushing to the door, grabbing a stale biscuit a long the way. Then, I put my shoes on and leave my apartment unit.

Instead of going down to the streets, I take a turn left and head for the roofs. Seeing as how late I'll be, I didn't want to be caught by the "friendly" Civil Protection. Since by going on the roofs, I bypassed the CP and the many checkpoints on the way to the local factory. The only danger I had to worry about is falling.

As I open the door to the roofs, the almighty sunlight blinds me for a moment before the ominous sight of City 14 comes into view. City 14 was one of the longest surviving cities to defend it's self from the never ending onslaught of the Combine. That's if you count a mere twenty minutes more than City 24. Thus, we earned the privilege of the first to be attacked by Stryders and Hunters. The result: only half of the city remained when we surrendered. Looking out on the roofs you could see the ruins of the battle.

After the effect of the sun I turned to the building on my right, which was fairly close to mine. I decided that it was safe for me jump the gap. After landing with a small thud I continued this routine.

As I followed the routine until I started to see the smoke stacks in the distance. I then searched for a entrance way into the buildings I'd jump on. I finally found one on a boutique near what use to be downtown. Downtown's now the centre of the Combine's hold on the city. After the Seven Hour war, the Combine wanted to teach this city a lesson by turning downtown into a chasm. Since then, they've put their barracks in downtown by creating artificial ledges branching from it. In the centre there's their HQ. No one knows how it manages to be in the centre.

Without knowing, the boutique that I entered hadn't been visited since the Seven Hour war. Because of this the whole place was falling into disrepair. The windows were boarded up, the walls crumbling, no light except for what light managed to slip through the windows and worst of all the wooden floors rotten away.

Sadly though, I didn't know any of this when I entered the boutique. The stairs should of been my first clue though as some of them were pretty much non-existent. As I think of it now, they didn't exist. So as I went down the stairs (skipping the last three steps) the thought that this place had been abandoned hadn't crossed my mind.

When I walked down the hall looking at my watch to see how late I'll be (which in fact was getting ridiculous as it was almost 9am, my shift started at 9:15am) I turned into a open room hoping that the stairs down to the main floor were there. While a part of my wish was granted, the other part of it was tossed out the window, into the garbage and incinerated promptly to prevent contamination. The room that I entered was in fact a room with no floor in it. So when I stepped into it, my foot was stepping into the middle of a pit. It was then I noticed that I was stepping into a room with no floor in it.

"Oh God..." I muttered just as I started to fall. It was then that I heard the buzz of a stun baton and the dreaded but heard so often demanding voice of CP.

"I repeat, who are you!" I started to see some light as I heard the echo of the CP. _Shit, if I'm hearing echos in this room that must mean four things: A: The floors are all broken in this particular spot. Probably a leaky roof. B: It also mean's that the building is larger than it looks. So not a boutique. C: __It's going to hurt... a lot, and lastly D: Civil Protection interrogation + me dropping in= uncertain future/possibility of death. It can't get any worse... can it?_

"I'm... telling you... my name is... Sarah... Winters..." A woman's voice said, full of coughing fits in between. After hearing this I heard someone spit.

The light was now close and bright enough for me to make out the shapes of who were in the room. There was three Civil Protection units in the room. Two with stun batons and one who seemed to be the interrogator with a USP on his hip. The woman who was supposedly Sarah Winters was sitting against the wall. From where I was looking she was wearing a black hoodie with a white t-shirt underneath. She also wore grey cargo pants and what seemed to be hiking boots. Her hair was in a long ponytail that was black.

The room that the interrogation was taking place and also where I was falling into was a gruesome room with blood stains all over the place. There was a lamp providing the sole source of light in the room. Unlike the normal everyday interrogation room, there was no window looking into the room. Also the room was made purely out of concrete.

"Lies! Guards beat her. If she doesn't tell the truth after than maybe we can enjoy ourselves after for a bit." The CP interrogator said with a hint of amusement in his voice. I could only wonder what would happen to Sarah.

The guards moved up to Sarah and started to hitting her with the batons. She only sat there amongst all the beating, not saying anything nor did she resist the beating. It made me wonder how long she was there for.

During all of this, the interrogator decided to stand back and watch. Luckily for me, he moved underneath where I was going to land. _Thank you Lord! Now that I've got myself a comfy cushion, I've got to..._

I then landed on the interrogator with a loud cracking sound (my glasses flung off my face from the impact). The two other CP units suddenly stopped and turned around towards my direction. I quickly search for the USP that was on the interrogator before I fell on him. _Where is it! I need it now! Here it is!_ This final thought goes through my head as my hand finds its way onto the USP. I quickly draw the gun out and point it at the closest CP unit and shoot him in the chest several times. He was sadly not even two feet away from me before finally dying from the last shot. The CP unit starts to fall on me as I turn my body to get one final shot before he reacts. Sadly though he was already ready for me and puled out an unseen USP.

The next few moments become a blur for me as the following things happen. A: The dead CP unit falls on me as I align my gun at the other CP unit, causing my shot to go wide and hit the light bulb in the lamp. B: Because of the dead CP unit, my stomach is saved from hot lead. Instead my right thigh gets hit. C: The crushing weight of the dead CP unit with the pain in my thigh causes me to slowly fall unconscious, and D: Just before the world goes dark, I hear a thud in the middle of the room and hurried footsteps coming towards me.

All because I was late for work.

A/N: Finally! I get something on this site that's worth reading (talking about my stuff).

Hope you enjoy this and please R&R


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: Waking up

_Huhn?_ This goes through my mind as I slowly stir into consciousness. _Where am I? Let's see if I can piece the events prior to this together. Um, I woke up... late, jumped across the roofs into a boutique, fell into a pit, discovered that the boutique wasn't really a boutique, fell into a CP interrogation, landed on a CP and shot a CP, also got shot by CP and then this. I have feeling that I'm missing something still though._ I open my eyes, just to find myself in the dark. I start patting around myself and discovered that I was laying on the hard concrete floor of the interrogation room.

My eyes start to slowly adjust to the dark when I feel a bullet at the tips of my fingers. I start to move my hand towards my right leg, going over a patch of recently dried blood as it comes next to my leg. Finally gathering the courage I place my hand where my leg was shot. Instead of finding a bloody hole in my leg I touch a cloth bandage. Relief suddenly shoots up inside of me at this discovery.

I then proceed to find my glasses to find my glasses, which were next to me. I then quickly glance at my watch to see how long I was out for only to discover that I didn't have my watch on me. I perform a quick search for it in vain.

I finally sit up wanting a better view of the room. Just beyond my reach were some tweezers, scalpels, bandages, a sowing needle, thread and some needles. I shuffle closer to them and notice a vial of sedatives a little further off. _So that's how the bullet was taken out without me waking up_. I turn myself around to try and find more clues of what happened since I've been unconscious. In the left corner there were three dead CP units stacked on top of each another. Next to them were two CP uniforms with Stun Batons and USPs.

Knowing that I'll need all of the above if I wanted to get out of here alive, I get up to walk over to the pile only to have immense pain in my thigh causing me to fall. After laying on the floor dazed for a few moments, I try getting back up without putting weight on my right leg. A couple of attempts later I finally succeed in standing up. I limp over to the pile.

Once I finally arrive at the pile, I see a smaller pile of clothes a little farther down of the corner. Before going to the clothes I pick up a baton and USP with a uniform that hadn't been shot at and brought them over to the pile. There was a black hoodie, white t-shirt, beige cargo pants and hiking boots. Then I clicked in. _That's it! I've finally figured out what was missing. The woman they were interrogating, Sarah Winters._ I turned my head around to see if she was in the room. There wasn't anybody and even if she was in the room she wouldn't see me in here; it was so dark that it was only luck that I found her clothes and the CP uniforms with it's weapons.

Not knowing when someone or something was going to enter the room I changed into the uniform. Once I was finished I checked the pockets for anything of use. I only found a stick of flint with some steel to cause a spark. I quickly look at my blue civilian jumpsuit and the flint. _Well, I won't be wearing these anymore and I could use some light._ I put the flint back into my chest pocket, take my USP and stun baton, my blue jumpsuit and headed to the middle of the room. I bundle of the jumpsuit, place it on the ground and light it.

Because of the light, I finally get a good view of the room. There was a pile of rations in the closest corner to me with a couple of water bottles. In the corner to the right of me was a blanket and pillow. _Must of been some time since I was out._ In the last corner before the three dead CP units, was the lamp. The door was on the wall in front of me.

I memorize the location of each pile before the fire goes out and head towards the food to eat. Once I was finished eating, I took a bottle of water with me and went back to Sarah's pile of clothes to see if there was anything indicating who she was. Rummaging in her pants reward me with a pack of gum. _How did she get these! They haven't been made since the Seven Hour war!_ I open the pack of gum and see three pieces left. _Hope she won't mind missing one._ I pop a piece into my mouth. Then I checked her hoodie finding a map and notebook with a pencil and eraser._ To bad ther's nothing left __that I can burn, this would probably have all the information I wanted._ I sigh at the luck I've had so far and replace all of her belongings back to where they were before.

I drink some of my water and stand up (slowly because of my leg) to stretch. Then the sound of faint footsteps getting louder come to my ears. I turn around towards the door waiting for the footsteps to go by or stop in front of the door. The footsteps stop in front of the door and the sound of keys jingling start. I quickly checked to see if my uniform was in order and tried to make it seem that I wasn't favouring my left leg. Just before my the door opens, I slipped my mask on.

A CP unit walks in carrying a light bulb in his left hand. He looked at me and said:

"Private your relieved form duty in this sector until further notice." This was said in the same voice that every CP unit had. _If it's a woman the Combine made sure that there's no difference._

"No can do sir. I'm under direct orders from my CO to remain in this room." I quickly spill out trying to buy myself some time. As I said this, the CP unit closed the door and went towards the lamp.

"What are these orders that bind you here private?" The CP unit finished screwing the light bulb in and plugged the lamp in. Light finally shined, giving me a better look at the CP unit. I noticed that the uniform looked baggy and the chest a little tight on him. As I looked to see if the helmet would give me more clues on who he was , his head turned towards where I woke up. I decided to quickly end this and throw the wild card out.

"My orders are to apprehend the next person to walk in here for attempting..." I didn't get to finish as the CP unit ran towards me and kicked me where I was shot. I yell in pain as I fall to the floor. Once I landed, I reached towards my baton but the moment I landed the CP unit pinned my arms to the floor with his knees. I looked towards his face but noticed that his mask was off and that it was Sarah Winters.

"Let's see who you really are." She whispered as her hand grabbed my mask. She pulled it quickly, not bothering on being careful in case it was me. Once she saw my face she grinned playfully.

"So that's where you are."

A/N: So here's Chapter 2. I'm happy to see that some people have read the first chapter but why hasn't there been any reviews? Am I not loved enough for it?

Either way, hope you enjoy.


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